A quick post

I am posting again because this computer sucks. I am at the Internet cafe again and for some reason I can't get the flickr downloader to work on this computer. I usually don't have any probelms getting it to work on these computers, but for some reason, this one doesn't seem to want to run the program. Consequently, it is taking a long time to upload pics on flickr.

So I guess I have time to talk about the Yokosuka Volunteer Center. It was a very relaxing 2 days. They didn't have much for me to do, so I had a lot of free time. This was a great time to have free time because I am leaving for Taiwan in less than 2 weeks and I am trying to coordinate how I am going to get from Taipei to Kaohsiung, who is going to meet me in Kaohsiung, and where I will be living. I have a ton of stuff to do, but what can you expect from someone who is about to embark on another adventure in a foreign land?

The center is free for individuals or groups to use if they are working on volunteer or other civic activities. They have meeting space, computers, video editing equipment, and simple publishing equipment for volunteer organizations to use. I was surprised how many people actually used this center. Most of these volunteer groups were made up of retirees, but there were some high-school age kids in there as well. The center is managed by a staff from the YMCA and funded mainly by the city.

Since explaining what they do there didn't take a full 2 days, I used my free time on the computer and helped them write an English language flyer for use by foreign community groups. It was a piece of cake, but they seemed very grateful for my help. The staff was a lot of fun to talk to, so it was a very enjoyable two days.

Maiko has been here this weekend. It is our last weekend together (for a while, anyway), but we have tried to just have a good time and not get all sappy about it. We went to Yokohama yesterday and went on a ferry ride, went to Chinatown, and shopped in Minato Mirai (a very upscale, trendy area). We had a great day, and I am in the process of loading many, many pictures of it on flickr. It was REALLY hot yesterday (maybe 95?), and we walked around all day. It was tiring, but we found diet Canada Dry Ginger Ale in one of the stores and American potato chips (Pringles and Kettle Chips!), so we had some nice treats at the end of the day. Mom, I think you will not be surprise to learn that I bought the store out of diet ginger ale! Unfortunately, they only had 9 cans...

I will try to get back to posting tomorrow. Adios!